Astrophotography: The ultimate geek hobby - TechRepublic (blog)
Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:50:51 GMT+00:00
: The ultimate geek hobby TechRepublic (blog) As he continued to learn and gain experience, he added and upgraded his set-up: I then purchased a dedicated Astro Imaging camera an Orion Deep Space ...

What is all the equipment I will need for astrophotography?
Q. I am just getting into astrophotography and do not know what equipment to buy. My price range is about $1,800. I need a telescope, mount, and CCD camera. I was looking at the Orion StarShoot 2 and the Meade DSI 2. It would be great if you can supply a list to let me know exactly what I will need. I already have a laptop for the imaging.
Asked by Joe T - Sat Nov 29 17:42:20 2008 - - 4 Answers - 0 Comments

A. Your target budget is tight for a useful system for Deep Sky imaging, but you can buy a system that will start to get you some results, with the understanding you'll want to add more later. The Orion Atlas mount is one of the lowest cost mounts that will be useful for DSO imaging. The Orion Sirius has a slightly lower cost and a somewhat lower weight capacity. You can further reduce your cost by not getting the goto versions of these mounts, but goto really is handy for imaging because some of the things you'll want to image may be too dim to observe visually. Both Burgess Optical and Astronomics are in the process of bringing out mounts expected to be similar to the Atlas for performance at lower costs. The mount is the foundation… [cont.]
Answered by Mark H - Sat Nov 29 21:31:16 2008

Which Telescope and CCD/camera should I buy?
Q. There are so many options available when looking at scopes. I have a cheap small blurry Meade kids scope (that I will later run over with my car), and I want to see the ring separation of saturn, moons of Jupiter, nebula and galaxies if I can. I have been looking at the telescopes below. But I cant not find many photos or videos on the these models only the larger more expensive models. Meade 8" Lightbridge $399.99 Celestron NexStar 4 SE $599.99 iOptrn smartstar G N114 GPS Goto $399.99 The lightbridge is the best looking and from what I can tell would grab the most light(right). But it doesn't have goto or tracking and would probably not be good for astrophotography which is the main thing I would like to do with the new telescope.… [cont.]
Asked by Sciguy - Fri Jan 23 19:47:28 2009 - - 4 Answers - 0 Comments

A. Hmmm - I am unsure where to start here. It's great that you are enthusiastic about the hobby of astronomy in general and astrophotography in particular. However: 1. I am really concerned by the fact that you are using the scope's appearance as a criterion. That is a flashing neon sign that you really, really need to do some serious thinking and review before you actually buy anything. 2. If you do not know the night sky (and that appears to be the case based on your description of what you want to see), you should really start by learning it. If you do not really understand where things are located or how they move, you will have a tough time finding, centering, and tracking your targets. You may believe that you can let the computer… [cont.]
Answered by Larry454 - Fri Jan 23 21:47:10 2009